About angelina salacinski Expertise I am always reading books and I have various books on quotations. I can answer most questions on quotations from books or other areas.
Experience i am always doing quizzes so i have a broad knowledge about most things,but i love browsing through my quotation books.
Question Dear Angelina,
I am doing my GCSE couse work.
I don't understand " the undeserving of the other sex"???
It is in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
"Unhappy as the event must be for Lydia, we may draw from it this useful lesson;...that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful,-and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex"---Mary
What is the meaning of the last sentence ? P.234
Would you please solve my headache ?
Thank you very much. Jane
Answer Hi Jane
The quotation is from Chapter 47 of 'Pride and Prejudice', when the Bennets learn that Lydia has eloped with her suitor Wickham. Mary says to Elizabeth:
'Unhappy as the event must be for Lydia, we may draw from it this useful lesson: that loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin; that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex.'
'Undeserving' means unworthy, and 'the other sex' (for a woman) clearly means men. So Mary is saying that a woman can't be too careful in dealing with unscrupulous men.
